[MasterFX1]

I just watched the free first five minutes of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on DirecTV's HD-PPV channel... and it looked like ****! It reminded me of the HBO-HD premeire of Star Wars II. (D* still claims they had an "Electrical Storm" that night.)


The first scene recounts the battle of Gandalf and the Balrog (Fire-emitting demon). The action sequences were completely unwatchable due to the pixelization from bandwidth-demanding fire and smoke effects.


Glad I didn't spring the $4.99.


I know I'm in the minority, but I do prefer the 1.85:1 crop on 16x9 monitors. 5.1 audio was nice, but so is the DVD's.

 

[HDTVChallenged]

Quote:

Originally posted by MasterFX1 I just watched the free first five minutes of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on DirecTV's HD-PPV channel... and it looked like ****! It reminded me of the HBO-HD premeire of Star Wars II. (D* still claims they had an "Electrical Storm" that night.) The first scene recounts the battle of Gandalf and the Balrog (Fire-emitting demon). The action sequences were completely unwatchable due to the pixelization from bandwidth-demanding fire and smoke effects.

Yep ... yet another fine example of D* HD 'Digital Quality' ... humm did somebody say 'VOOM'? This D* native is getting very restless.


HDC

 

[bangbang]

Did you say the Two Towers on HD-PPV on D* is cropped? I am new to D* HD-PPV, do they crop all 2.35:1 ?

 

[eddiew]

Yes , this VOOM sounds very interesting to me! D* could be in trouble here.

 

[factory15]

I am watching the whole movie on D* and while most scenes look impressive.....the actions scenes are so pixelated it's unwatchable.


What a complete turnoff!!!


Forget about OAR.....this macroblocking is unacceptable. It seems like OAR is the least of our problems...


I'm sure DISH is probably having the same issues...

 

[barth2k]

I watched the 5 minute freebie and couldn't tell if it looked any better than DVD. and cropped too. How disappointing. I was going to have people over to watch it.

 

[doctork25]

For me, it was not much better than DVD in the first half hour or so, but after that, it was awesome! The scenery was fantastic and very clear, and closeups were... well, close!


There was the occasional shot or two in the last hour that didn't look good at all, but overall, I - and my friends that were over watching - were very impressed.


Matt

 

[terabeast]

I finished watching the 5pm showing. Yeah the distant, scenery shots were beautiful, it really stands out over the DVD. But those fast pace, bandwidth intensive scenes looked no better that an overly compressed video file playing on the PC. I find it amazing how the PQ can shift from 1 extreme to another.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Yep, I just watched some of my recording, and any action was pathetic. I think we should stop letting them get away with that, by demanding our money back because they are not delivering the product that they are charging for. The important thing about an HD PPV is that not 1920x1080 pixels start out at their end, it's that they arrive at our end. If they don't arrive at our end, then they are not delivering an HD product, though they are charging us for one.

 

[bfdtv]

Dean,


Does your 169time give you any indication of a typical or maximum bit rate for your recording of LOTR:TTT?

 

[ssj2]

"I'm sure DISH is probably having the same issues..."


DISH does not re-compress or downscale the image like Directv does. Their HD stuff is sent out at the same bandwith it's received.

 

[gprigmore]

I watched in on DISH last night. I thought it looked great, much better than a DVD could provide, and I didn’t notice any compressing issues. However, the cropping did bug me. It was especially apparent on one of my favorite scenes: When the main Elf character “Legolas†mounts the fast approaching horse in the awesome (almost summersault) maneuver, about half of that scene was cropped and it simply lost its magnitude. Such a shame they feel they need to crop. Leave it alone please!

 

[Dean Roddey]

Quote:

Does your 169time give you any indication of a typical or maximum bit rate for your recording of LOTR:TTT?

It does display a value during recording that is some rough indication of bits/sec total I think, but not during playback, so I can't say. But it was clearly insufficient.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Anyway, I sent them a fairly scathing nasty-gram about the whole thing.

 

[romy101]

Tonight it came on in stereo.

 

[shah8]

Stereo? I wished I talked in stereo when muttering madly to myself. Creeps everyone out! What? The MOVIE is stereo?! Awww man, now that is just not right!


Look, you all are scaring me. Could anybody tell it was stereo during the free preview? Maaaan, I'd be on the phone sooooo quick if i get stupid stereo. And I come in, having paid for dolby 5.1....


Darius

 

[romy101]

Actually that is the reason I didn't order it. This was the first time I cursed at Directv for being so stupid.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Do you leave out 'today' at the end there?

 

[ender21]

It was 5.1 when I watched it during the early show yesterday.


And I have the same complaints/comments. Static shots looked really good, but anything with action looked like crap.


Ironicially, wouldn't compression be kinder to it if they *did* make it OAR?


Rick

 

[Dean Roddey]

You guys be sure to let them know what you thought, otherwise they'll jus assume that we are happy with this crap.